The present invention relates generally to absorbent articles intended for personal wear, and more particularly to such an absorbent article as part of a system to interactively train a child and assist his/her caregiver trying to overcome enuresis or bedwetting.
Disposable absorbent articles find widespread use as personal care products such as diapers, children's toilet training pants and other infant and child care products, adult incontinence garments and other adult care products. These articles absorb and contain body waste and are intended to be discarded after a limited period of use; i.e., the articles are not intended to be laundered or otherwise restored for reuse. Conventional disposable absorbent articles comprise an absorbent body disposed between an inner layer adapted for contacting the wearer's skin and an outer layer for inhibiting liquid waste absorbed by the absorbent body from leaking out of the article. The inner layer of the absorbent article is typically liquid permeable to permit body waste to pass therethrough for absorption by the absorbent body.
Disposable absorbent training pants, in particular, are useful in toilet training children. Typically, these disposable undergarments are similar to washable, cloth underwear in the manner in which they are put on and worn, yet provide an absorbent function similar to diapers to help maintain skin health. Training pants provide a child undergoing toilet training with an undergarment that eases the transition from diapers to washable, cloth underwear as they become more confident in their ability to use the toilet independently.
In order to learn to use the toilet independently, a child must first learn to recognize when urination is occurring. Because urination may often occur during an activity that distracts the child to the extent that the child does not notice urination, e.g., during sleep such as when in a bed, this recognition can represent a substantial hurdle in the training process. Also, a child's ability to recognize when urination occurs may be hampered by the improved performance of disposable absorbent undergarments which quickly draw and retain urine away from the wearer's skin after an insult occurs.
One study indicates that roughly 5%, or 3.2 million, of the estimated 61.3 million (based on the U.S. Census Bureau Profile of General Demographic Characteristics for 2000, where the number of individuals 5-19 years of age is cited as 61,297,467, and thus it is assumed that there as many individuals 4-18 years of age (also a 15-year age range)) United States children 4-18 years of age (inclusive) are enuretic. In this study the definition of enuretic is at least 1 overnight wetting accident in a 2-week period while sleeping and “frequently enuretic” is defined as experiencing at least 2 overnight wetting accidents in a 1-week period while sleeping. This study found that that 2.6%, or 1.6 MM, of the children 4-18 years of age (inclusive) are frequent enuretics.
Close monitoring of a toilet-training child by a caregiver can be helpful in that when urination occurs it can be addressed by the child and caregiver to enhance and improve the learning experience, particularly when a child is learning to wake up from sleeping to go to the bathroom. Therefore, it is beneficial to provide the caregiver with immediate notification and/or verification that urination has occurred so that it may be addressed with the child very soon after the event has occurred.
However, as a child starts to learn to wake up on their own, then less involvement by the caregiver is desirable. This can have the dual benefit of helping the child feel more confident in his/her ability to toilet train on their own, even at night, and also not disturbing the caregiver unnecessarily when the child has made significant progress toward waking him/her self.
Several attempts have been made at improving toilet training aids for toilet training pants. For example, training pants that include a temperature change member and/or a dimensional change member which provide a temperature or pressure change sensation to alert the child wearing the pants that urination has occurred have been disclosed. Additional training aids have been used to alert the caregiver and/or child that urination has occurred. Such training aids include audible alarms, vibration sensors, and light indicators that may provide visual or other sensory indication of urination.
Existing training pants having one or more training aids that alert only the wearer, or only the caregiver, to an insult of the pants do not as readily enable positive interactive training opportunities and miss helping the child in the overnight training process when caregiver involvement is most needed. One of the first obstacles to successful toilet training is helping the child become conscious of the impending occurrence of a urine insult by the child, and this is hard to accomplish if the child is completely unconscious in a deep sleep. There is a need, therefore, to provide a suitable system for interactively training a child and enabling the caregiver to assist to enhance the toilet training experience for both the child and the caregiver and help the child to better and/or more quickly overcome enuresis or bedwetting.